{"id":696,"date":"2006-07-27T23:34:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-28T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/the_week_winds_"},"modified":"2006-07-27T23:34:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-28T03:34:00","slug":"the_week_winds_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=696","title":{"rendered":"The week winds down – FloydFest begins!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Festivalsite046\"<\/a>
\nFloydFest <\/a>is a three-day World Music Festival held annually in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, showcasing great<\/a> examples of World, Bluegrass, Reggae, Folk, African and
\nAppalachian music, as well as quality local Arts and Crafts.<\/p>\n

The festival started late today and the FloydFest business office across the hall from my office sits empty and silent after months of non-stop activity. <\/p>\n

People would ask me how I could stand working near so much noise and commotion, and I would laugh. There was so much energy pouring out of that office it was electrifying.<\/p>\n

It was like mainlining espresso to be in the vicinity of tireless
\nLinda DeVito who wears marketing and public relations hats in addition
\nto being the sponsorship director of FloydFest.<\/p>\n

I would hear her coming up the hall in the morning, juggling two
\nconversations on her cell phone and she would pick up the ever-ringing
\nphone on her desk and would smoothly handle a third call from someone
\nwho wanted to know why their tickets hadn’t arrived. <\/p>\n

The soul of tact, she humored the clueless people demanding favors
\nand soothed the hordes of last-minute "volunteers" who showed up
\nexpecting a free weekend pass.<\/p>\n

In the midst of handling confused ticket buyers, "No, the price is
\nno longer $25, that ended in May, the day ticket for Saturday is $50
\nand that no longer includes parking", she fielded calls from her
\ndaughter, "Turn the oven on and set it to 350 degrees", then returns to
\nanswer a third call from a vendor, "Vendor selection closed four months
\nago. Would you like to get on the list for next year?" <\/p>\n

Being across from the FloydFest office was like being plugged into
\nMission Central at a satellite launch except the FloydFest crew never
\nstopped the clock. No matter what crisis erupted, they would work out a
\nhandling on the fly and forge on through.<\/p>\n

The FloydFest team is just one of our tenants at the Jacksonville
\nCenter for the Arts. Their activities provide an interesting synergy
\nwith the artisans and craftspeople who populate the Center because the
\nartisans exhibit at the festivals put on by the FloydFest team.<\/p>\n

Since one of the main goals of the Jacksonville Center is to guide
\nartisans in  connecting to the marketplace, we welcome all
\nopportunities for artisans to appear in venues where they will be
\nexposed to new audiences.<\/p>\n

It is a great learning experience for our artisans and our staff to
\nsee what goes into staging an event the size of FloydFest. This year
\nthey expect more than 10,000 attendees based on ticket sales to date.<\/p>\n

Gretchen and I plan to attend on Sunday when the musicians of the
\nCrooked Road will be playing. It promises to be a good time and I will
\nbe taking pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Festivalsite046\"<\/a>
\nFloydFest <\/a>is a three-day World Music Festival held annually in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, showcasing great<\/a> examples of World, Bluegrass, Reggae, Folk, African and
\nAppalachian music, as well as quality local Arts and Crafts.<\/p>\n

The festival started late today and the FloydFest business office across the hall from my office sits empty and silent after months of non-stop activity. <\/p>\n

People would ask me how I could stand working near so much noise and commotion, and I would laugh. There was so much energy pouring out of that office it was electrifying.<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1813,1779],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3R4iK-be","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}